


‘Books and Plays and the Cinema’

by Crowgirl



Category: Grantchester (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 09:17:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16616192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowgirl/pseuds/Crowgirl
Summary: There’s a small entry-way and then a surprisingly large foyer, done up in rather elderly red plush and gilt. There are large framed posters for films long since gone by --Gone with the Wind, Mrs Miniver, Brief Encounter-- on the walls.





	‘Books and Plays and the Cinema’

Geordie adjusts Sidney’s collar, then stands back and eyes him critically.

‘The cinema, you said,’ Sidney says, a trifle defensively. He isn’t used to Geordie paying this kind of attention to his clothes.

Geordie makes a noncommittal noise, flicks at the lapel of Sidney’s coat, then turns to pick up his own overcoat. 

‘I meet your approval?’ Sidney says.

Geordie grins over his shoulder and opens the room door. ‘Stop fishing, you.’

* * *

‘Cinema, you said!’ Sidney hisses in Geordie’s ear as they leave the car and he follows Geordie out onto a street he doesn’t recognize. 

‘Not at work, _you_ said,’ Geordie retorts and grabs his elbow to steer him around a corner and onto a main street, bright with streetlights and a steady flow of cars going past towards a light at the end of the road. Geordie gives him a gentle push towards the right and falls in beside him. A little way down the road, Sidney can see a small awning and bright lights that he assumes indicate a theatre of some kind. 

There are a couple of men standing outside smoking last cigarettes as they come up to the ticket window; one of them nods to Geordie as Geordie steps up to the cashier’s window and gives Sidney an appraising sort of look. He doesn’t have much time to think about it before Geordie comes back, tickets in hand, and nudges him towards the double doors.

There’s a small entry-way and then a surprisingly large foyer, done up in rather elderly red plush and gilt. There are large framed posters for films long since gone by -- _Gone with the Wind, Mrs Miniver, Brief Encounter_ \-- on the walls and, on one side, some worn couches are pushed against the wall. A couple of young women are sitting on one, talking something over so intently that they don’t even glance up as Geordie and Sidney go by. 

‘’aven’t seen you around here in awhile,’ a drawling voice says and Sidney feels Geordie pause mid-step then turn towards the voice. There are two men sitting on one of the couches. One has hair that had once been dark and is now streakily grey and a thin face; the other is young, perhaps younger than Leonard, although it’s hard to tell because he doesn’t look up from the pages of the newspaper he’s crouched over. There’s something odd about them and it takes Sidney a moment to realise they’re sitting closer together than he would expect from two men waiting in a cinema lobby. As the older man leans forward, he lets his hand run over the younger man’s arm and Sidney sees the younger man shift, as if he can’t decide whether to move closer or pull away.

‘Haven’t seen you either,’ Geordie says and the older man smiles, showing teeth darkened by neglect. 

‘Aye,’ he agrees, leaning back again and running a hand back over his hair and adjusting the lapels of his somewhat shabby coat. He’s damn near _preening,_ Sidney thinks. ‘But that’s not because _I_ ‘aven’t been ‘ere.’

‘And you’ve clearly done well for yourself,’ Geordie says. 

The man laughs and glances at the younger man beside him who blushes and stares at the paper harder than before. ‘Not as well as you ‘ave.’ He raises an eyebrow and gives Sidney a cool once-over; there’s something challenging in the look and Sidney refuses to let himself shift in the face of it; he has to quash a sudden desire to touch Geordie, to prove that he can and this man can’t. He returns the look with his best blank expression and a small, petty part of him is pleased that the older man looks away first. 

Sidney isn’t quite sure what’s happening but whatever this is, it’s distinctly uncomfortable and he speaks up: ‘We should go in, Geordie.’

The man laughs. ‘Oh, you always did like ‘em educated, didn’t you, Geordie boy?’ He resettles himself on the couch, stretching out his legs and dropping a proprietorial hand on the shoulder of the young man beside him. ‘Aye, well, we’ll all still be ‘ere when you need us.’

Geordie stares at him for a long moment and then, just as Sidney is going to try and pull him away, Geordie laughs. It doesn’t sound forced or artificial, but rather as if Geordie has just caught on to a good joke the rest of them haven’t seen yet. The man on the couch blinks.

‘Aye, you wait, Fred lad. You wait just as long as you like. C’mon.’ Geordie puts a hand on Sidney’s shoulder, giving him a gentle push towards the theatre doors.

* * *

‘Friend of yours?’ Sidney ventures as they push in through the swinging doors into the theatre proper.

Geordie snorts, then laughs, a little bitterly. ‘Acquaintance. If you’d call it that.’ 

Sidney nods and lets Geordie steer him into a back row of seats. The house is more comfortable than he’d been expecting: the seats have recently been reupholstered in decent velveteen and the cushions aren’t half-bad. The seats are a little odd and it takes him a minute to realise why. ‘Geordie--’

Geordie wriggles out of his coat and drapes it over his knees, then looks sideways at Sidney. ‘What?’

‘These--’ Sidney’s sure he’s blushing and he feels like a fool but he hasn’t been in the back row of a cinema for at least fifteen years that he can remember.

Geordie settles himself and, under the folds of his coat, his hand finds Sidney’s, warm and solid, and weaves their fingers together. ‘Aye?’ 

Sidney laughs softly and shifts position slightly so that their shoulders are nearly touching, as they might be if there were a chair arm between them. ‘This was one of your places, wasn’t it? That Caro told me about?’

Geordie is silent for a moment, then nods. ‘A couple o’ times. Yeah.’ 

‘And... Fred?’

Geordie’s silent for a moment more, then nods sharply. ‘A couple o’ times.’ His hand tightens abruptly on Sidney’s and, as the house lights dim and the screen flickers into life, Geordie turns and leans towards him. ‘Not since -- not _ever_ since--’

Sidney slips his other hand over Geordie’s. ‘I know.’

**Author's Note:**

> Title (delightfully) from C.S. Lewis, [_Mere Christianity_.](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/200818-our-experience-is-coloured-through-and-through-by-books-and) I feel Leonard would approve, yes?
> 
> Thanks as always to the best of all betas, [elizajane](http://archiveofourown.org/users/elizajane) and [the Lady Kivrin.](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Kivrin)


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